Derbyshire v Worcestershire T20

Moeen Ali’s absence will be felt

Just a short blog from me tonight as I prepare for the long journey home tomorrow.

It has been a week of interviews and my thanks go to everyone who gave up their time so willingly to me. Yesterday I spent several hours at the 3aaa County Ground and was taken by the tranquility of the place on a non-match day, but also by the amount of work going on. None of this work is seen, perhaps little of it genuinely appreciated, but the strimming of grass, cleaning of seats and weeding of walkways is important to ensure the match day experience is a positive one.

Tomorrow night sees our last T20 game against Worcestershire, who could qualify with a win, while we could avoid bottom spot if we claim the points - or the weather allows it. Ben Cotton returns to the squad after a lengthy absence and, as I wrote the other day, he has been missed. It is the only change to the squad that beat Yorkshire, and rightly so.

Our visitors are missing Moeen Ali, who is on England duty of course, but Ross Whiteley returns to the ground where he made his name after hitting eleven sixes against Yorkshire the other night.

A good finish would be a momentum builder ahead of the fifty over cup and we have enough talent to do so. If we can reproduce the intensity once more, we could just finish on a high.

I hope so, but family duty calls and I won't see it. I will be following from afar though, and naturally wish the lads well.

I'll be back tomorrow, with thoughts from north of the border.